1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for autonomic extensions to wake on wireless network. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for implementing a wake on LAN mode into a wireless network such that a wireless client conserves power consumption.
2. Description of the Related Art
Within the past two decades, the development of raw computing power coupled with the proliferation of computer devices has grown at exponential rates. This phenomenal growth, along with the advent of the Internet, has led to a new age of accessibility to other people, other systems, and to information.
The simultaneous explosion of information and integration of technology into everyday life has brought on new demands for how people manage and maintain computer systems. The demand for information technology professionals is already outpacing supply when it comes to finding support for someone to manage complex, and even simple computer systems. As access to information becomes omnipresent through personal computers, hand-held devices, and wireless devices, the stability of current infrastructure, systems, and data is at an increasingly greater risk to suffer outages. This increasing complexity, in conjunction with a shortage of skilled information technology professionals, points towards an inevitable need to automate many of the functions associated with computing today.
Autonomic computing is one proposal to solve this technological challenge. Autonomic computing is a concept to build a computer system that regulates itself much in the same way that a person's autonomic nervous system regulates and protects the person's body. One enabling technology of autonomic computing is wake on LAN (WOL). In a wired network, WOL mode enables an Ethernet controller to check directed and broadcast packets to determine if the packets include a WOL packet. The physical layer wakes a computer system once it receives a WOL packet that is intended for the computer system.
A challenge found, however, is extending the WOL mode into a wireless network. Extending the current implementation in a wireless environment requires a wireless device to continually be in “receive” mode, checking for data packets. Receive mode, however, consumes a significant amount of power which is not desirable in a wireless environment where a majority of clients are operating off of battery power.
In addition, by having each wireless client receive packets that may eventually be discarded, the wireless network is inundated with meaningless data packets which result in a reduction of bandwidth for other users that are sending and receiving important data packets. What is needed, therefore, is a system and method for implementing a wake on LAN mode in a wireless network environment while conserving power consumption and reducing wireless network traffic.